Device for the selection of documents such as, for instance, index cards

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a device for the selection of documents filed in a filing cabinet and comprising a selecting carriage which can be displaced above the documents. According to the invention the documents are suspended to support straps of breakable plastics material provided at their upper portion with selecting tabs some of which being interchangeably mounted on said support straps without protruding on the two faces of said support straps. The invention particularly applies to the selection of cards.

United States Patentv 1 1 3,809,237 Schimmerling May 7, 1974 [54] DEVICE FDR THE SELECTION OF 3,721,342 3/1973 Sandt et al; 209/805 DOCUMENTS SUCH AS, FOR INSTANCE, INDEX CARDS Michel Gerard Schimmerling, 30 Rue de la Libert, Lingolsheim, France 67380 Filed: May 9, 1973 Appl. No.: 358,539

Inventor:

Foreign Application Priority Data May 10, 1972 France 72.17526 U151?!- --'7----:---r-.i- -.%0?l0;,.l3filLQN Int Cl B07c Field of Search 209/80.5, 110.5;

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Nevin 209/805 Primary Examiner-Allen N. Knowles [57 ABSTRACT The invention relates to a device for the selection of documents filed in a filing cabinet and comprising a selecting carriage which can be displaced above the documents.

According to the invention the documents are suspended to support straps of breakable plastics material provided at their upper portion with selecting tabs some of which being interchangeably mounted on said support straps without protruding on the two faces of said support straps.

The invention particularly applies to the selection of cards.

13 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures PATENTEDMAY 71974 3.809.237 sum 2 BF 4 28 ill n II n DEVICE FOR THE SELECTION OF DOCUMENTS SUCH AS, FOR INSTANCE, INDEX CARDS The present invention has essentially for its object a device permitting the selection of documents such as, for instance, index cards.

The device according to the invention is of the type wherein the documents can be filed pell-mell in a filing cabinet or the like and comprising a selecting carriage which can be displaced above thedocuments so as to effect the selection by raising, at least on one side, the documents selected according to the data registered in the form of tabs projecting from the upper portion of the documents.

During the displacement of the selecting carriage in perpendicularrelationship to the documents'fil'ed in the filing cabinet, the supports of the documents are caused to be retained on a rod of the filing cabinet through the medium of an indent located at the lateral ends of each support. The said indents, which comprise lute slot conformity with the selecting rollers and offering no point of pressure to the latter will be retained by their indent in raised position above the rod. The level difference between the supports returned to the lower or rest position and those having remained in raised position will enable the latter to be located whatever their situation in the filing container.

According to the invention, the tabs are formed in a rigid breakable plastics material and are provided at the upper portion of a thin support strap of plastics material, the quality and thickness of which are similar to those of the said tabs, the said strap and the said tabs being substantially on a level on their two faces.

At least some of the said tabs are advantageously so mounted as to be resiliently and interchangeably inserted in the upper edge of the said support strap.

There is thus obtained a rigid, undeformable, substantially plane and indefinitively re-usable support strap on which can be registered all the desired selection data and which permits permanent keeping up to date as well as a modification of any desired selection criterion.

The invention will appear more clearly from the following description made with reference to the appended drawings illustrating, by way of example, one form of embodiment of the invention. In the said drawmgs:

FIG. 1 shows a support strap of injected plastics seen from the front side; I

FIG. 2 shows the same support strap seen from the back side;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are views similar to those of FIGS. 1 and 2 respectively, but including in addition an index card suspended from the support strap;

FIG. 5 is a broken-away view of an upper portion of the support strap illustrated in FIG. 1, on which programming tabs are placed;

FIG. 6 shows the back side of a programming tab, the front side of which is shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a front broken-away view of the complete device of the invention comprising the filing cabinet, the carriage and the support straps for the cards;

FIG. 8 is a top view of the carriage;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a detail of embodiment of the filing container.

Reference is first made to FIGS. 1 to 6 illustrating the design of the support straps for the documents, enabling the latter to be selected.

For the sake of clarity, the recessed regions of the support straps and of the dogs provided with the programming tabs are shown conventionally by dots.

As illustrated in the drawings, each support strap 10 of injection-moulded thermo-plastic material is formed of a thin support strap provided at its upper portion and, in the example illustrated, at each of its sides, with programming tabs 11, 12 cast integral with the said support strap.

The support strap is also provided with programming tabs 13 formed in dogs, eight of which, from 14 to 21,

are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

' tabs 13 and have indents with recesses and projections which co-operate with complementary recesses and projections formed at the edge of the support strap so as to lock the said dogs on the said edge without there being any portion projecting from one or the other face (front or back face) of the said support strap. Otherwise stated, such an arrangement enables the support straps provided with the removable and interchangeableprogramming tabs to remain substantially plane on both their faces.

More specifically and according to the form of embodiment illustrated, the indents such as a, b, c, d and e formed in the dogs leave only half the thickness, substantially, of the material of the said dogs, and matching complementary indents are provided at the edge of the said support strap, which also leave only half the thickness, substantially, of the support strap. Three indents f, g, h appear in FIG. 5 on the front side of the strap and two indents i, j are shown on the back side thereof in FIG. 2.

In order toenable the dogs carrying the programming tabs 13 to be inserted and locked, two U-shaped slots 22, 23 are advantageously provided at the base of the said dogs so as to enable the latter to be inserted in the matching locking portion of the support strap after a skew introducing motion and a fitting of the dog onto the said edge through the said slots as illustrated in FIG. 5.

Owing to the illustrated set of matching indents, the

dogs are reliably locked on the edges of thesupport straps.

Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 6, it is seen that at the level of the arrow 24 of a dog hooked to the support strap, at least three alternating portions of halfthicknesses of the strap edge and the dog are placed on one another. At the level of the arrow 25, there are also three alternating portions of half-thicknesses, but inversed with respect to the first ones;

In order to position each dog, it is sufficient to slide on the front side (FIG. 5) of the support strap the triangle c and the lateral legs d and e, and, on the back side of the support strap, to bring the portions a and b of the dogs in coinciding relationship to the portions i and g (FIG. 2) of the support strap. Lastly, it is seen that the vertical legs k and l are inserted into the recesses m and n of the support strap. 1'.

When the selection programme is to be modified, it is sufficient to inverse the sequence of the foregoing operations in order to remove the dogs.

Each programming tab may advantageously be provided with an identification print or engraving, such as for instance (5) displayed on dog (FIG. 1) correspondingto the combination of tabs 13 carried by the dog.

To ensure the positioning and supporting of the cards 26, there are provided lugs suchas 27 projecting upwardly and penetrating into the openings 28 of the card. Counter-lugs 29 retain the .card engaged in the recessed portion 30 provided at the lower portion of the support strap, so that the card does not project from the front side (and neitherfrom the back side) of the support strap. The card is retained at its two end 1 corners in slits 31 and the corners 32 of the card rest upon the recessed portions 33 of the support strap.

At 34 are seen recesses adapted to receive identification labels, whereas at 35 are provided openings permitting to immediately see, through alignment, an inad vertently inversed support strap. 7,

Reference is now made to FIGS 7 and 8.

As appears clearly from FIG. 7, the cuts 36 provided on the support straps l0 and comprising a constriction enable the said straps to be hooked on two rods 37 in two positions, either with one sideraised as shown for the strap 10a, or with both cuts completely fitted onto the two rods as shown for the strap 10b lying horizontally and seen partially behind the strap 10a.

lnorder to reduce the wear of the cuts 36 of the support straps, the metal rods 37 are advantageously coated with an adhesive plastics coating 38. In addition, if after being used for-a very long time the support straps have a tendency not to remain suspended owing to the widening of the cuts 36, his sufficient, in order to take up the play due to-the wear, to place a further or thicker adhesive plastics tape on the rods, 37.

The raising of one side of the support straps 10 is performed, during the advance of the carriage 40 above the support straps, by the notched wheel 41 which raises the side lug 42 provided at each end of the support straps 10. 3

In order to allow one side of the support straps 10 to be raised without the latter being repelled towards the bottom of the container during the advance of the carriage, the notched wheel 41 is connected through the 7 medium of reducing pinions 43-46 to a drive roller 47 which rolls on a toothed rack 49 provided on each side, forming a guide rail 50, of the carriage. Owing to this set of pinions, there take place a transmission, inversion and reduction of the motion of rotation of the roller 45, ensuring the raising of the edges 42 of the support straps without driving them along.

A second roller 51 ensures the rotation of a shaft 52 of the carriage receiving the selecting rollers such as 53, 54 mounted on a removable casing 60 (FIG. 8). In order to maintain the said selecting rollers in an adequate position on the shaft 52, use is advantageously made of forks 55 serving to retain the casing 60 and which slide in slots formed within a support 56 solid with the carriage. v

The number of forks 55 dependsupon the number of gears 60 which can be mounted over the length of the shaft 52. It is usually at least equal to the number of dogs such as 14 to 21 provided at each side of the support strap, increased by a number compatible with the number of tabs 11 provided at each side of the strap.

Owing to the symmetrical design ofthe filing cabinet comprising two identical lateral rails 50, his obvious that the selection of documents can be performed by raising one or the other side of the documents by mounting the carriage at one side or the other of the filing container.

Advantageously and as illustrated in FIG. 9, the lateral rails 50 are formed by fitting to one another several lengths such as 71, 72 which are advantageously mounted on metal section-members 73, 74 ensuring the alignment of the said lengths. A reliable rigidity and a satisfactory alignment on either side of the filing container are thus ensured and the length of each filing container may be adjusted at will.

In FIG. 9 it is also seen that in order to support each rod 37 to prevent its bending, each length 71, 72 is provided with a leg 56, 57 upon which the rod rests.

Any suitable wall 58, for instance of metal, can be used to form the front wall and the back wall of the filing container.

Of course, the invention is by no means limited to the form of embodiment described and illustrated which has been given by way of example only.

What is claimed is: j

1. Device permitting the selection of documents such as index cards which may be filed pell-mell in a filing cabinet and comprising a selecting carriage which can be displaced above the documents to perform the selection by raising, when it is moved above said documents, at least one side of the documents selected according to data registered in the form of tabs projecting from the upper portion of the documents, and cooperating with selecting means carried by said carriage, wherein said tabs are formed in a rigid, breakable plasticsmaterial which are provided at the upper portion of a thin support strap of plastics material the quality and thickness of which is similar to those of the said tabs, the said strap and the said tabs being substantially on a level on their two faces. v

2. Device according to claim 1, wherein at least some of the said tabs are resiliently and interchangeably inserted in the upper edge of the said support strap.

3. Device according to claim 2, wherein said interchangeably inserted tabs are formed on dogs which carry a set of a certain number of them, the said tabs being formed on one side of the dog, whereas the other side has indents with recesses and projections cooperating with complementary projections and recesses formed at the upper edge of the said support straps ensuring the locking of the dogs on the said support strap.

4. Device according to claim 3, wherein some of the indents of the dogs leave, in some regions of the latter, only half the thickness, substantially, of the material, and such indents are provided on both faces of the said dogs, matching portions of substantially half-thickness being formed at the said upper edge of the said support strap.

5. Device according to claim 4, wherein the halfthickness indents are so formed that the dogs are placed on a level with said edgeof the upper strap after a skew motion of introduction and the engagement of the dog on the said edge through two U-shaped slots.

6. Device according to claim 4, wherein when one moves in parallel relationship to the edge of the upper strap one finds, at a first level, at least'three alternate portions of half-thickness of the strap edge and of the dog which are placed on one another, and, at a second level, at least threeinversed alternate portions of the dog and of the strap edge which are placed on one another.

7. Device according to claim 2, wherein some of the said tabs are integral with the said support strap.

8. Device according to claim 7, wherein the said support strap comprises at its lower portion opposite the one carrying the tabs, slots in which can be inserted portions of the upper edge of a card and in particular its two extreme corners, and lugs which resiliently bear upon the two faces of the card, maintaining it aligned and pressed over the whole length of the strap edge substantially in the plane of the said upper strap edge.

9 Device according to claim 8, wherein some of the said lugs project upwardly and penetrate into matching openings provided in the said cards.

10. Device according to claim 7, wherein said support strap is provided laterally with two substantially C-shaped cuts the openings of which are directed downwardly, said filing cabinet comprises two lateral rods on which said- C-shaped cuts can be fitted for the suspension and sliding of the said straps on said rods and for the maintenance in a skew position when the strap is engaged on one side on a rod and is not engaged on the other side on the other rod, the said rods are coated with an adhesive plastics tape, the thickness of which can be chosen according to the extent of wear of the C-shaped cuts in the support strap.

11. Device according to claim 10, wherein said selecting means of said carriage comprise drive rollers which roll on toothed-rack guides provided on the lateral walls of the filing cabinet, a set of pinions and a notched wheel said drive rollers, pinions and notches wheel being so arranged that said wheel rotates in an inversed rotation way in view of the motion of the carriage, said notched wheel engaging the lower edge of a lateral portion of said support straps to raise one side thereof by disengaging the corresponding cut from its rod when said carriage is actuated in the forward direction before the selection performed during the return" motion.

12. Device according to claim 11, wherein the carriage frame carries a shaft on which can be mounted selecting rollers constituting said selecting means, said 1 selecting rollers rolling above the said tabs and lowering, during the return motion of the carriage, the raised straps when the tabs are at the level of the said rollers, a set of said rollers being mounted in individual casings fork means sliding in slots provided in said carriage frame perpendicular to the said shaft, each of the said forks being controlled by a key, said fork means laterally locking said selecting roller casings.

13. Device according to claim 11, wherein the two lateral walls of the filing cabinet which carry the toothed racks on which the the selecting carriage rolls are constituted by several lengths fitted on one another end to end and the alignment of which is ensured by a metal section-bar on which are mounted the said lengths. 

1. Device permitting the selection of documents such as index cards which may be filed pell-mell in a filing cabinet and comprising a selecting carriage which can be displaced above the documents to perform the selection by raising, when it is moved above said documents, at least one side of the documents selected according to data registered in the form of tabs projecting from the upper portion of the documents, and co-operating with selecting means carried by said carriage, wherein said tabs are formed in a rigid, breakable plastics material which are provided at the upper portion of a thin support strap of plastics material the quality and thickness of which is similar to those of the said tabs, the said strap and the said tabs being substantially on a level on their two faces.
 2. Device according to claim 1, wherein at least some of the said tabs are resiliently and interchangeably inserted in the upper edge of the said support strap.
 3. Device according to claim 2, wherein said interchangeably inserted tabs are formed on dogs which carry a set of a certain number of them, the said tabs being formed on one side of the dog, whereas the other side has indents with recesses and projections cooperating with complementary projections and recesses formed at the upper edge of the said support straps ensuring the locking of the dogs on the said support strap.
 4. Device according to claim 3, wherein some of the indents of the dogs leave, in some regions of the latter, only half the thickness, substantially, of the material, and such indents are provided on both faces of the said dogs, matching portions of substantially half-thickness being formed at the said upper edge of the said support strap.
 5. Device according to claim 4, wherein the half-thickness indents are so formed that the dogs are placed on a level with said edge of the upper strap after a skew motion of introduction and the engagement of the dog on the said edge through two U-shaped slots.
 6. Device according to claim 4, wherein when one moves in parallel relationship to the edge of the upper strap one finds, at a first level, at least three alternate portions of half-thickness of the strap edge and of the dog which are placed on one another, and, at a second level, at least three inversed alternate portions of the dog and of the strap edge which are placed on one another.
 7. Device according to claim 2, wherein some of the said tabs are integral with the said support strap.
 8. Device according to claim 7, wherein the said support strap comprises at its lower portion opposite the one carrying the tabs, slots in which can be inserted portions of the upper edge of a card and in particular its two extreme corners, and lugs which resiliently bear upon the two faces of the card, maintaining it aligned and pressed over the whole length of the strap edge substantially in the plane of the said upper strap edge.
 9. Device according to claim 8, wherein some of the said lugs project upwardly and penetrate into matching openings provided in the said cards.
 10. Device according to claim 7, wherein said support strap is provided laterally with two substantially C-shaped cuts the openings of which are directed downwardly, said filing cabinet comprises two lateral rods on which said C-shaped cuts can be fitted for the suspension and sliding of the said straps on said rods and for the maintenance in a skew position when the strap is engaged on one side on a rod and is not engaged on the other side on the other rod, the said rods are coated with an adhesive plastics tape, the thickness of which can be chosen according to the extEnt of wear of the C-shaped cuts in the support strap.
 11. Device according to claim 10, wherein said selecting means of said carriage comprise drive rollers which roll on toothed-rack guides provided on the lateral walls of the filing cabinet, a set of pinions and a notched wheel said drive rollers, pinions and notches wheel being so arranged that said wheel rotates in an inversed rotation way in view of the motion of the carriage, said notched wheel engaging the lower edge of a lateral portion of said support straps to raise one side thereof by disengaging the corresponding cut from its rod when said carriage is actuated in the ''''forward'''' direction before the selection performed during the ''''return'''' motion.
 12. Device according to claim 11, wherein the carriage frame carries a shaft on which can be mounted selecting rollers constituting said selecting means, said selecting rollers rolling above the said tabs and lowering, during the ''''return'''' motion of the carriage, the raised straps when the tabs are at the level of the said rollers, a set of said rollers being mounted in individual casings fork means sliding in slots provided in said carriage frame perpendicular to the said shaft, each of the said forks being controlled by a key, said fork means laterally locking said selecting roller casings.
 13. Device according to claim 11, wherein the two lateral walls of the filing cabinet which carry the toothed racks on which the the selecting carriage rolls are constituted by several lengths fitted on one another end to end and the alignment of which is ensured by a metal section-bar on which are mounted the said lengths. 